A new gate dielectric material HfTiON is deposited by reactive co-sputtering of Hf and Ti targets in N2/O2 ambient,followed by annealing in N2 at 600℃ and 800℃ respectively for 2 min. Capacitance-voltage and gate-leakage properties are characterized and compared for different anneal conditions. The results indicate that the sample annealed at 800 ℃ exhibits lower interface-state and oxide-charge densities, and better device reliability. This is attributed to the fact that the rapid thermal annealing at the higher temperature of 800 ℃ can effectively remove the damage-induced precipitation, forming a hardened dielectric/Si interface with high reliability.